The device and method disclosed herein relate to a physical therapy device.
Ankle injuries are common and may be a result of weak muscles associated with the ankle. During typical daily activities, or in association with sport related activities, one or more muscles in the ankle can give way to stresses or loads beyond their capacity due to associated weakness, which can lead to injury to the ankle/foot complex, neural tissue and supportive structures. While recovering from an ankle injury, the patient may be required to rest (i.e. not exercise) his or her ankle/foot to allow for necessary healing to take place, however, this rest period can allow for further weakening or atrophy of the surrounding ankle/foot muscles. As a result, many ankle/foot injuries require subsequent physical therapy to strengthen the muscles of the ankle/foot to help allow the patient to recover to a necessary functional level and to help prevent further injury from occurring again.
During physical therapy, the physical therapist evaluates the patient to assess the associated impairments of the joint and its supportive tissues (i.e. muscles). Based on the assessment, the physical therapist will develop a working diagnosis on what tissues or motions appear to be impaired, which will then lead to appropriate treatment of the surrounding joint and tissues—which may require strengthening. However, since it can be time consuming or expensive for the patient to work with the therapist multiple times per week, patients are often educated on how to perform exercises on their own at home without supervision. By way of example and not limitation, the physical therapist may teach the patient to tie an elastic member around his or her foot and tie the other end of the elastic member to a leg of a chair or weight or other stationary object. The patient must readjust his or her body in order to move his or her foot by pivoting his or her ankle in a particular manner in order to exercise and strengthen a particular muscle (or group of muscles) associated with the ankle. If the movement of the foot is slightly off, the muscle that needs to be strengthened is not activated correctly. Instead, a different muscle altogether is activated and strengthened. At home, the patient may not realize that he or she is performing the exercises incorrectly and strengthening the wrong muscle or group of muscles. Hence, defeating the purpose of the ankle exercise regimen.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improvement for exercising an ankle of the patient.